UPSC 2014 Prelims Questions with Answers

Work through the family tree. F is the son of B and brother of E, and D is the grandmother of F — so B is D's son, and E is also B's son. C (the lawyer) is D's daughter-in-law, i.e. C is married to D's son B; since the judge is married to the lawyer, B is the judge. A (the engineer) is married to the lady stenographer, so the stenographer is A's wife. The two married couples are therefore (A, stenographer) and (B-judge, C-lawyer), which makes D — B's mother and A's wife — the stenographer. Hence D's profession is Stenographer.

From the family relations: F is son of B, E is brother of F (so E is also B's son), and D is grandmother of F, so D is B's mother and A is D's husband (A, the engineer, is married to the lady stenographer D). C, the lawyer, is D's daughter-in-law, so C is married to D's son B; the judge is married to the lawyer, confirming B is the judge and C is his wife. The two couples are therefore A–D and B–C, i.e. both AD and BC.

C (the lawyer) is the daughter-in-law of D, and the judge is married to the lawyer — so C's husband is the judge. Since F is the son of B and D is the grandmother of F, B is D's son, which makes B the son whose wife is the lawyer C. Therefore B is the judge (married to C). E is B's son and the unmarried doctor, and F (B's other son) is the draughtsman. Hence the profession of B is Judge.

Half of 420 tickets = 210 tickets at Rs.5 = Rs.1,050. One-third of 420 = 140 tickets at Rs.3 = Rs.420. Remaining tickets = 420 − 210 − 140 = 70 at Rs.2 = Rs.140. Total = 1,050 + 420 + 140 = Rs.1,610.

If the 3rd is Monday, the 21st is 18 days later; 18 ÷ 7 leaves remainder 4, so the 21st = Monday + 4 = Friday. The fifth day from the 21st (i.e. after the 21st) is the 26th; 26 − 3 = 23, and 23 ÷ 7 leaves remainder 2, so the 26th = Monday + 2 = Wednesday.

10:10 AM. The cars move towards each other, so their relative speed is 50 + 30 = 80 km/h. Time to meet = 160/80 = 2 hours. Starting at 08:10 AM, they meet at 10:10 AM.

13. Put A at the origin. B is 5 km north of A and C is 12 km east of A, so triangle ABC is right-angled at A. The shortest distance BC = sqrt(5^2 + 12^2) = sqrt(25 + 144) = sqrt(169) = 13 km.

25. Before interchange, A is 11th from the left. After A and B interchange, A occupies B's original position and becomes 18th from the left. Therefore B's original position was 18th from the left. B was also 10th from the right, so total persons = 18 + 10 - 1 = 27. Excluding A and B, the number of other persons is 25.

Friday. Place the fixed classes first: Music is on Monday, Sports on Tuesday, Mathematics on Wednesday, and History is on the day after Mathematics, so History is on Thursday. Literature is not on Friday, and Sunday is already free. The remaining possible class day for Literature is Saturday. Therefore Friday is also free.

Let Dinesh have D. Then Chander has D/2 and Alok has D + 5. Alok + Bhupesh = Chander + Dinesh = half of Rs.100 = Rs.50. From Chander + Dinesh = 50: D/2 + D = 50 ⇒ 1.5D = 50 ⇒ D = 33⅓. So Alok = 38⅓, Chander = 16⅔, and Bhupesh = 50 − 38⅓ = 11⅔. Alok has the maximum amount.

The passage makes military intervention conditional: it occurs when political leadership fails to emerge. The underlying assumption is that the military steps in to fill the political vacuum created by weak leadership. The other options overstate the claim (military intervention is not called inevitable, and leadership is not declared ineffective in general).

The statement only compares accident counts across buses, cars and trucks. It says nothing about how many vehicles of each type are on the road, or about the care or skill of drivers. None of the listed conclusions follows.

The groups cannot be compared due to their heterogeneity. The army population and civilian population are not comparable samples: they differ in age profile, health screening, occupation, living conditions and selection criteria. A lower death rate in one selected group does not prove that joining the army is safer for the general population. The valid inference is that the two groups are heterogeneous.

P is assigned 4. The difference between P and T is 5, so T = 4 + 5 = 9 (4 − 5 is not a positive digit). The difference between N and T is 3, so N = 9 − 3 = 6.

The three violinists include Girija and Vanaja; Jalaja and Shailaja do not play the violin, so the third violinist must be Tanuja (the only remaining person among the six who is not ruled out). Tanuja is also among the dancers (with Shailaja). Therefore Tanuja is certainly both a dancer and a violinist.

Last year's question was on A, a medieval poet, and modern poets figure in alternate years — so this year's question is on a modern poet (E, F, G or H). The paper-setter avoids F. Of the remaining modern poets, the 'liking' chains given (whoever likes H also likes G; whoever likes F also likes E) point to E as the most likely choice, since the setter likes F and therefore also E. Hence this year's paper most likely contains a question on E.

An umpire does not play the game; he enforces its rules so that the players compete fairly. The passage uses this analogy to argue that competition policy is more vigorous and fair when the government stays out of ownership and merely regulates, so that its norms ensure fair play by the private sector.

The passage asks what the government should own and what it should leave to the market: rural roads, public health capital and forest cover must stay on the public balance-sheet, while steel and airlines work best in private hands. Portfolio composition therefore refers to the mix of government investment across different industrial sectors.

The passage explains that rural roads carry sparse traffic, so tolling is unviable; if the government did not own them, they would not exist. Since a private firm cannot earn money from an asset that cannot be tolled, the private sector cannot have monetary gains here, which is why the State must own rural roads.

The passage lists three reasons to review the role of the public sector: its comparatively less-than-satisfactory performance, the maturing of the private sector with a larger social base for entrepreneurship, and the growing institutional capabilities to enforce competition policies. It never says the public sector has lost its relevance in industrialization - it credits it with playing an important role - so statement 1 is wrong.

The author calls this belief one of the ideological assumptions of the apologists of capitalism: it is part of the false ideology that treats an unregulated market as fair and competent, and it conveniently ignores the resultant gross inequity that the author says the focus on wealth creation should highlight. It is not a righteous claim of the free market nor a benevolent face of capitalism.

The ideological bias lies in the apologists' twin assumptions - that an unregulated market is fair and competent and that private greed serves the public interest. The question asks what this bias implies, i.e., what the biased apologists assume: that the free market is both fair and competent.

The passage says the debates surrounding free markets focus on their efficiency and, explicitly, their ability for self correction. That self-correcting power of the market is precisely what the apologists of the free market system believe in.

In the understanding that liberty and restraints are complementary. The quote says liberty is real only when government power can be restrained and held accountable. That means liberty is not absence of all restraint; it requires constitutional limits on power. Option D best captures this relation between liberty and restraint.

5 km. Let the distance be d km and the correct travel time be T hours. At 5 km/h he takes d/5 hours and is 3 minutes late; at 6 km/h he takes d/6 hours and is 7 minutes early. The time difference is 10 minutes = 1/6 hour. So d/5 - d/6 = 1/6, giving d/30 = 1/6 and d = 5 km.

30. If 18 equal instalments repay 60% of the loan, then 1 instalment repays 60/18 = 10/3 percent of the loan. Number of instalments needed for 100% repayment = 100 ÷ (10/3) = 30. So the agreement had 30 instalments.

After buying the two tickets A will be left with 50 paise. A has Rs. 10, which is 80% of the fare for two persons. So total fare for two tickets = 10 / 0.80 = Rs. 12.50. B gives Rs. 3, so A now has Rs. 13. After buying tickets, balance = 13 - 12.50 = Rs. 0.50. Hence option C is correct.

If the price of every good and service doubles, the same goods now cost twice as many rupees — the purchasing power of each rupee falls by half. The values of the goods relative to one another stay the same; it is only the value of money that is halved.

12 : 48 hrs. The bells will ring together after the LCM of 18, 24 and 32 minutes. Factorising: 18 = 2 x 3^2, 24 = 2^3 x 3, and 32 = 2^5. LCM = 2^5 x 3^2 = 288 minutes = 4 hours 48 minutes. From 8:00 a.m., the next common ringing time is 12:48 p.m.

In each successive figure, the black half of every corner bead rotates 90° clockwise around its corner. Carrying the rotation one step further from the fourth figure gives the fifth figure: top-left bead black on its right half, top-right bead black on its top half, bottom-left bead black on its right half, and bottom-right bead black on its bottom half — option B.

Count the choices at each stage. From S to U there are 2 routes (upper or lower arc of the first diamond). From U to V there are 3 onward routes — the upper arc, the lower arc, or the straight horizontal segment. From V to T there are likewise 3 routes. Total distinct routes = 2 × 3 × 3 = 18.

In each row, the circles decrease by one from left to right while the triangles increase by one: row 3 runs 2 circles/0 triangles, 1 circle/1 triangle, so the last cell must be 0 circles and 2 triangles.

Per capita income was always above Rs. 5,000. Per capita income = total income / population. Since income is in crores and population is in lakhs, each ratio of income/population gives thousands of rupees. 1992: 1010/20 = 50.5 thousand; 1993: 1111/21 is above 52 thousand; 1994: 1225/22 is above 55 thousand; 1995: 1345/23 is above 58 thousand. All are above Rs. 5,000, so option C is correct. Option D is wrong because the highest value is not in 1994.

Each row pairs the arrow directions in a fixed cycle: the missing bottom-centre cell completes the column pattern with two up arrows, matching the row/column symmetry of the matrix.

Place the target's broken-strip outline (top horizontal segment, inward mid-bend, outward right point) over each option. Only option C, the figure of overlapping triangle and angle lines, contains the target shape with exactly the same angles and proportions; the other options either distort the angles or lack the full strip.

Zero. Convert each student's marks subject-wise as percentages of maximum marks, because the maximum differs in English. Student A scores 60/100, 70/100, 50/100 and the remaining subject percentages as given in the table; Student B scores 80/150, 70/100, and the remaining subject percentages as given. After normalising by maximum marks and averaging the subject percentages, the two averages are equal. Hence the difference is zero.

The passage repeatedly emphasizes reduction in the role of the State, privatization and minimum government expenditure. Therefore the State should have a reducing role.

The passage says globalization requires privatization, freer market determination of employment and wages, reduced State role, and opening sectors to private participation. Expansionary public expenditure goes against the passage, so option C is supported.

The passage states that the basic philosophy of globalization emphasizes absolute freedom to markets to determine prices and production and distribution patterns, and adds that employment and wages should also be governed by free play of market forces. Option C combines exactly these elements: prices, production and employment.

The passage says the philosophy of globalization views government interventions as processes that create distortions and bring in inefficiency. This is stated almost verbatim, making distortions and inefficiency in the economy the direct answer.

Assumption 2 is valid: the passage says the ecosystem is vulnerable both due to geological reasons and on account of population pressure and resource exploitation, i.e., natural as well as anthropogenic causes. Assumption 1 goes too far - the passage urges conservation, not the complete avoidance of resource use. Assumption 3 is not supported: loss of endemic diversity threatens genetic resources and ecosystem services, not the extinction of the ecosystem itself.

The passage culminates in a call to shift from the species-habitat focus to expanding the biogeographic range, so that natural adjustments to climate change can proceed. This shift is its most important message: conservation should emphasize biogeographic ranges rather than individual species or habitats.

The shift to contemporary conservation is driven by the need to let natural adjustments to climate change proceed without being restrictive - the Himalayan biogeographic region should be enabled to adapt to climate change smoothly. The other options restate facts or problems from the passage, not the reason for the shift.

The passage says climate change threatens the possible loss of genetic resources and species - so the permanent disappearance of some flora and fauna is supported. It does not say the ecosystem itself would permanently disappear; the damage is to species, habitats and ecosystem services, so statement 2 is not supported.

3. Initially all six cards show 1. One try turns exactly four cards. Two tries cannot make all six cards show 2, because at most eight flips are made and any card flipped twice returns to 1. Three tries work: turn cards 1,2,3,4 in the first try; cards 1,2,3,5 in the second; and cards 1,2,3,6 in the third. Cards 1,2,3 are flipped three times each and cards 4,5,6 once each, so all six finally show 2.

Total musicians = 120. Musicians who play all three instruments = 5% of 120 = 6. Musicians who play exactly two instruments = 30. Musicians who play guitar alone = 40. Subtracting these from the total, violin alone plus flute alone = 120 - 6 - 30 - 40 = 44.

When two articles are sold at the same price, one at a profit of 10% and the other at a loss of 10%, there is always a net loss. If the common selling price is S, total cost price = S/1.1 + S/0.9 = 2.0202S while total selling price = 2S, so the loss = (2.0202S − 2S) ÷ 2.0202S ≈ 1%.

12. From one end, marked positions are at cumulative distances 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28 and 36 cm. From the other end, the corresponding positions are 35, 33, 30, 26, 21, 15, 8 and 0 cm. Counting distinct marked points on the 36 cm line gives 12. The overlap at 15 cm and 21 cm must be counted only once.

Green covers: B, C, E, F. Old volumes: C, E, F. Medical extracts: D, E, F. The books satisfying all three (green + old + medical) are E and F.

The area has increased by 12%. Let the original length be L and width be W, so original area = LW. New length = 1.4L and new width = 0.8W. New area = 1.4 x 0.8 x LW = 1.12LW. Therefore the area becomes 112% of the original, i.e. it increases by 12%.